Let the Games Begin
by brookyss36
Summary: Castle faces one of his most feared and hated adversaries in a twisted game of life and death. With everything on the line, will Castle make it out alive? Will Kate, Ryan, and Esposito find him before it's to late? Or will they finally meet their match?
1. Proposition

**Hey everyone! So this is my very first Castle fanfic, ever! I'm not exactly sure where this story is heading, but I'll figure it out as I go. Thanks in advance for reading it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own, yadda, yadda. **

* * *

Castle and Beckett definitely weren't your average crime fighting duo, but somehow they managed to make the perfect pair. Castle was the egotistical writer with an irresistible charm and overzealous attitude about stopping the bad guys. Beckett was the cool, calm one with a calculating mind and a heart hidden away where only Castle could find it. The perfect pair.

It was a stormy night, Castle observed, watching the dark clouds drifting by his window and listening to the soft patter of rain against his house, as he turned his attention to the most beautiful woman sleeping beside him. The darkness of the room showed the silhouette of her face and the brief bursts of lightning illuminated her features for him to see. He lay there, absentmindedly studying Beckett's face, lingering over every detail. He could distantly hear the cracks of thunder booming miles away, but it would have taken a car crashing through the room to distract him from her. Well, a car crash or a full bladder. In this case it was the latter.

Castle and Beckett had spent the night having a cliché romantic candlelight dinner at Castle's house, talking about nearly everything under the sun. That's one thing about love, you can talk about anything and everything and it still seems like the most important conversation in the world. That's how Castle felt last night. He felt so comfortable talking to Beckett, so happy that he had finally found the perfect woman for him. He literally could feel his heart growing with happiness with every syllable Beckett uttered and with every moment he spent with her.

He slowly pulled the covers off, careful not to wake up Beckett, and sat on the edge of his bed. Castle suddenly heard a noise, seemingly coming from his kitchen. He held his breath and listened, thinking about waking Beckett. No, he was probably just overreacting. It was probably just a noise outside from the storm. He went to the bathroom and heard another noise just as he was getting ready to get back in his bed. This time he didn't think it was from the storm.

Castle headed for his bedroom door, the flashes of lightning now created an eerie scene and made Castle's spine tingle. _This is starting to feel like a bad horror movie, _Castle thought to slowly walked down the hallway towards the kitchen, eyes squinting in the darkness, trying to make out any movement. He crept into the kitchen and searched the wall for the light switch. He finally found it and turned it on, the suddenness of bright light causing Castle to close his eyes for an instant.

He slowly opened his eyes and would have screamed with surprise if someone else's hand wouldn't have covered his mouth, muffling it. Two strong hands grabbed his arms, restricting any movement. A man was standing right in front of him, grinning at him with too much enthusiasm and one hand over Castle's mouth. Jerry Tyson: 3XK.

"Hey, Castle," Tyson sneered, removing his hand from Castle's mouth. "Better be careful not to make too much noise," Tyson whispered, "we wouldn't want to wake your lady friend in the other room. If she does, I won't hesitate to kill her, understood?"

Partly in shock, Castle slowly nodded his head, silently praying that Kate wouldn't wake up. He was so thankful that his mother and Alexis were away for the weekend. His feelings of thanks were quickly replaced by anger. He could feel rage slowly building up inside of him; he wanted so badly for the man standing in front of him to be dead already.

"What do you want?" Castle asked quietly with a straight face and an even tone. He was trying to act stronger than he felt.

Tyson hesitated before answering Castle's question as he walked over to the fridge and peered inside, leaning so his head was nearly in the fridge. He stood up with an apple gleaming in his right hand. Taking a bite, he answered with a full mouth, "Well, I have a proposition for you." He finished the sentence with a smile that made Castle feel sick. He was sure that whatever Tyson had to propose wasn't going to be good.

Tyson didn't wait for Castle to respond, "You see, Castle, I was finally free. Everyone thought I was dead. But then you had to go and ruin it all for me. Do you even realize how much work it took to get that far?"

"Well, actually," Castle replied, "killing people was kind of what ruined it for you."

Castle could see the flash of anger in Tyson's eyes, psychotic anger. He knew that he was a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment.

Ignoring Castle's remark, Tyson continued, having remained some of his composure, "So, I have a plan for you, or a surprise, rather. I've created a…game, of sorts. I'll keep those details a surprise for now though. But I can tell you this much: If you win, you live and if you lose, you die."

"Sounds easy enough," Castle said with false bravado.

"Yeah, well, that's what I thought too," Tyson said now slowly circling around Castle and the men holding him, "so I thought I'd make it just a tad more interesting."

Castle gulped nervously. The sinking feeling in his stomach was getting stronger.

"So, here's now it is. If you lose, I'll also kill your girlfriend. How does that sound?" He was standing right in front of Castle's face, staring him in the eyes, daring for him to retaliate. Castle didn't respond, instead he just stared at the twisted man in front of him with as much hatred as he could muster. The room filled with tension as both men remained silent, waiting for the other to say something first. Castle had never felt such hate as he did at that moment.

Finally Castle broke the silence, "what if I don't want to play your game."

Tyson smirked and took a step back, "Well, I'm afraid you don't have a say in that."

Castle felt something being pressed against his nose and mouth and his vision was slowly fading to black. The last thing he remembered was Tyson looming over him, like the predator had finally gotten its prey.


	2. Race Against Time

**Hey everyone! Thanks for all the follows and favorites! You guys are da' best! :)**

**So, here's chapter two. I'm quite amazed that I already have two chapters up. I probably won't be as fast with chapter three, but I'll be as fast as I possible can. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Here we go!**

* * *

**Early the next morning,**

Castle awoke to a soft breeze playing across his face. For a fleeting moment, he felt happy and smiled, thinking he was in bed with Kate beside him. Eyes still closed, he felt to his left and, instead of touching Kate, he felt a rough pokey surface. His eyes shot open and his gaze snapped to his left to see what his hand had touched: leaves, sticks, and dirt. He quickly sat up and looked around: trees. He was in the middle of a forest, alone.

Castle squeezed his eyes shut and he recalled what had happened last night. The thought brought up his old feelings of rage, anger, and then the nauseating feeling of fear. Slowly opening his eyes, with dismay, he saw the same surroundings; he was hopeful that maybe it was all a dream. No such luck. He slowly got to his feet, all the while still observing his surroundings. He brushed of his jeans and his blue button up shirt, noticing he was not wearing his pajamas from the night before. _That's strange, _observed Castle.

His thoughts drifted back to the previous night and he thought of Beckett. A jolt of panic went through him and worst-case-scenario thoughts were drifting around his head about what might have happened to her. _Maybe she's in the same situation that I'm in right now, _Castle panicked, _or maybe she's at the precinct, trying to figure out where I am. _He decided to go with the latter option; it gave him hope that Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito were looking for him. He prayed that Beckett wasn't in this same situation right now.

Castle searched his pockets for his phone, it was a slim chance of it being there, but he had to check. Reaching in his right pocket, he felt a piece of paper. He pulled it out and saw it was a piece of notepaper, folded up with his name on the front. He slowly unfolded it and started to read it:

_Hello Castle,_

_Let the games begin!_

* * *

**_Earlier that same day,_**

Kate Beckett was feeling like the happiest woman in the world when she woke up. Waking up next to Castle usually made her feel that way. The morning light drifted through the window when she opened her eyes. She immediately noticed that Castle wasn't in bed but just assumed he was in the kitchen making breakfast or something. A feeling of concern started to worm it's way into her brain. S_omething feels off, _she thought to herself.

She got up and put her clothes on, making her way down the hall and into the kitchen. No Castle. She did a round through the entire house, calling his name, and still couldn't find him. Going back into his room, she grabbed her phone and dialed Castle's number; no answer. Now she was definitely getting worried. She phoned down to the precinct and Ryan answered.

_"_Hey, Beckett, what's up_?" _Ryan asked in his usual cheerful tone.

_"_Hey, Ryan, yeah, listen_," _Kate replied, realizing she sounded slightly panicked_,"_have you seen Castle at the precinct today?_"_

Ryan replied slowly, "Uh, no, haven't seen or heard from him today. But today was your guys' day off, right?"

Kate began pacing back and forth, "look Ryan, it's probably nothing, probably just Castle being Castle..."

"Hey, Kate, what's wrong?" Ryan interceded, concern was edging it's way into his voice.

"Castle isn't here," she blurted out. "I called his phone and looked all around the house but he's not here..." That's when she noticed his keys sitting on the kitchen counter. "Ryan, how soon can you and Javi get to Castle's house."

"We'll be right there," he answered without hesitation.

Kate put her phone in her pocket and went to the front door, it was unlocked. Alarms were really going off in her head at this point, Castle was always good about keeping his door locked. Working with the police had made him more cautious about stuff like that.

Walking back to the bedroom, she looked around for anything suspicious. Her eyes fell on Castle's wallet, sitting on the side table by his bed.

She frowned, _his phone's gone though. _At this point she was sure that someone had taken Castle and they clearly must have taken his phone as well.

Kate walked over to his closet and noticed something else strange. Every night, Castle set out his outfit for the next day, but it wasn't there. _So, whoever took him, also took his phone and his clothes. _She tried adding up the evidence like an algebra equation in order to understand what had happened, but she just didn't have enough information to make a clear deduction.

A light knock at the door broke her concentration and she went to let Esposito and Ryan in.

Before either one of them could say anything, she gave them a run down of what she knew.

"And you didn't hear anything last night?" Javier asked.

"No, I..well, I had quite a bit of wine last night," Kate answered slowly, "I must have been in a pretty deep sleep."

The cop part of Kate, the usually dominating part of her, was slowly retreating within herself. She could feel the girlfriend side of her growing into a bolder presence in her mind and she was feeling overcome with concern and fear for Castle. She suddenly felt dizzy and looked up with a hopeless fear at her two friends standing in front of her.

Ryan, quickly noticing the change in her demeanor, grabbed her arm and lead her to the couch. He sat next to her and grabbed her hands in his, "Kate, Castle's going to be fine, okay?" He looked into her eyes with as much reassurance as he could.

Esposito nodded his head in agreement and sat on the other side of her, arm around her shoulder, "We'll find whoever it is who did this, don't worry. Besides, Castle always has had a knack for getting himself out of trouble."

A small smile played across Kate's lips but quickly disappeared. "Thanks guys," Kate mumbled numbly, "I'm sorry, it's just...it feels different when something like this happens to you, you know?"

They sat there in an acknowledging silence for a brief moment before the ringing of a cell phone startled them all back into reality.

Kate fumbled, trying to retrieve the phone from her pocket. Her heart jumped in her throat when she saw who the caller was.

"It's Castle," She stated bluntly as she pressed answer and then put it on speaker phone. Ryan and Esposito leaned in, listening intently.

"Castle, where are you?" Kate asked.

"_I'm sorry, but Castle's not here at the moment," _A eerily familiar voice replied with a hint of humor, "_he's a bit preoccupied right now."_

Kate could hear the man laughing and she felt a wave of anger. "Who are you?" She answered with a fierce edge to her voice, the cop part of her was starting to come back.

The man replied with a sneer, "_Well, Miss Beckett, that would kind of ruin the surprise, don't you think? I just called to tell you that your boyfriend might not be alive that much longer. However, if it's any consolation, there is a slim possibility of him surviving; albeit, v_ery _slim." _

Ryan and Esposito glanced at each other, worry showing in both of their eyes.

When Kate didn't respond, the captor continued on with a sigh, "_So, anyways, just wanted to call and let you know. You'll be hearing again from me shortly." _

And with that, the line went dead, and Kate stared at the screen of her phone. Fuming, she set it on the table in front of the couch and abruptly stood up. Esposito and Ryan both stared at her, unsure of what the best thing to say was.

"The thing that I don't get," Kate said with her usual authority and paced back and forth in front of Esposito and Ryan, "is how this guy got in here. And I'm sure he wasn't alone, so how could two or three men sneak in here if they didn't break through the front door?"

"Maybe they came through a window..." Ryan started to suggest.

"No," Kate responded quickly, "I check all of them, they are all locked."

"Did you check all of them?" Esposito asked, "Even the one's upstairs?"

Kate responded by running towards the staircase, Esposito and Ryan right behind her. It didn't take them long to find it. They looked out the window of Alexis' room and found a rope hanging through the window. On the end of it was a hook that was neatly wedged into the wall.

"Alexis must have forgotten to shut her window when she left." Kate observed.

"At least there's a logical explanation," Ryan said.

"Yeah," Kate said bluntly, "now the question is, where did they take him?"

* * *

**Later that night,**

Kate sat on Castle's couch with a new found determination to find him. She had her momentary break down earlier, but now she had to stay in control if she wanted to have any hope of finding him alive. Esposito and Ryan were still there and had brought back the giant white board that they used in cases from the precinct. Captain Gates gave their current case to another team and, even though they were homicide detectives, gave them the go ahead to do everything they could do find Castle. They were currently writing down any possible suspects that might have had motive to kidnap or hurt Castle. They found the list of names growing rapidly.

After hours of deducing, crossing out names, and talking about possibilities, Kate stood up, stretched, and looked at her watch; it was 2 a.m. already.

"Guys," Kate said to Esposito and Ryan, "It's really late and I don't expect you to stay here all night helping me with this."

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other and then back at Kate.

Esposito spoke first, "Beckett, Castle's our friend. We aren't going to stop until we find him."

Ryan nodded and smiled, "You can't get rid of us that easy."

Kate smiled, overcome with a feeling of apprecation that these two guys had become her closest friends and that they were always there for her.

Kate looked down at her computer sitting open on the coffee table in front of her and noticed a new message in her inbox. It was from an unknown sender and contained an attachment.

"Guys, I got a message," she said breathlessly, "it might be about Castle.

Esposito and Ryan crowded around her, getting a clear view of the computer screen.

Kate clicked on the message and waited impatiently for it to open. The message was blank except for a video attachment. She clicked the 'open' button for the video and another screen popped up and played back the video.

Kate gasped, "Castle..."

The video was crystal clear quality, like a movie, and showed Castle sitting, leaning against a tree. Kate looked at his face, he had a bloody nose and sported several cuts and bruises. Her, Ryan, and Esposito sat and watched with bated breath, waiting for something to happen. Castle started standing up, grabbing on the tree for support, he clutched at the right side of his body around his rib area and Kate noticed a dark liquid staining his shirt and spreading underneath his hand. Kate let out an exclamation of surprise when Castle started stumbling back to the ground, one hand still pressed against his right side and his other out-stretched to soften his fall. She could feel tears start to fall as she watched him slump to the ground and she could hear him groaning with pain. Abruptly and startlingly, a man's smiling face appeared on screen, replacing the scene with Castle.

Kate gasped, he was a little beat up, but it was clear that the man was Jerry Tyson.

Tyson spoke with a sound of sadness in his voice, "As you can see, your boyfriend is in a bit of a bad situation. I'm afraid it's not looking too good for him. He has two days of survival remaining or you have two days to find him or else he dies. I admit, this is going to be a tough one for you to figure out, so I'll give you a hint: Richard Connell. Let's see what you can deduce from that. Oh, one last thing, I left him a cell phone and, if he finds it, I'm sure he'll be giving you a call." Tyson gave them one last big smile before the video went blank.

"This is a nightmare," Ryan said sadly.

Kate couldn't agree more.

* * *

**Hmm...any of you guys have any ideas as to what the clue means? Feel free to voice your opinions and review away! :)**


End file.
